If you haven’t heard, the word is out on what the Fox network plans to charge for a :30 second commercial spot in this year’s Super Bowl.

According to an article in Variety, advertisers will be asked to write a $4 million dollar check for just one half-minute long chunk of your attention.

Long before you’ll experience this annual onslaught of advertising, and all in one evening, an elite group of consumers around the country in select markets will be getting the ultimate sneak peek. Yep, with all that money on the line, advertisers will be enlisting focus group panels to first give their ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ to these creative brand messages. With that feedback in hand, the spots will then be tweaked and sweetened to match what the groups deem as successful, memorable and most importantly actionable marketing messages once they land in your living room. The ‘actionable marketing message’ part means the crafty commercials will likely make you go out and consume that product or service.

SO WHAT IS YOUR SUPER STRATEGY?

Let’s face it, you probably aren’t going to go out and spend $4 million on a :30 second spot. Probably Joe? OK, you’re not.

Still, you spend money to market your business. And that’s why you should have your own super strategy to ensure your customers are being super-served in ways your competitors just can’t match. Every day of the year. Not just during football season.

Depending on your product or service, it may be time to focus group test any number of aspects of your offerings.

Some areas worth closer examination include:

Effectiveness of your advertising

Packaging of your product (big talk these days about whether companies are being responsible on a sustainability level)

Website effectiveness

Strength of your brand (brand loyalty)

Customer satisfaction

Where you are vulnerable

The list could go on and on. And it does. The point is, the success of your business relies heavily on how well you know your market. We specialize in asking the right questions and in the right venue, to help you get there. So set a game plan for success. As always, we’re here to huddle up and help. Contact Us! 888-703-4636.

My friend Kevin is pretty talented. He shoots high quality web videos for businesses. He knows (and reminds me a lot) that “video is where it’s at.” It must be, because it’s how he makes his living.

There’s no mistaking it. The clips his company produces are a smart blend of advertising and marketing. Kevin’s vignettes are bold, high energy bursts that scream “Come check us out!” And, “Be one of our customers!” What they are not are the traditional run of the mill 30-second spots we’re used to seeing.

You might think that in this world of short attention spans that Kevin has it all backwards. That you have to get it on and get it off quickly if you want to keep people’s attention and make an impression.

The study by Celtra makes the point that what we may have always believed about short attention spans may have been a bit off point. OK. It may have just been wrong.

For instance, one of the findings is that the completion rate (i.e. did you watch the whole thing?) for 30-second spots is actually lower than the completion rate for other video content — some of it as long as 150 seconds. All of this research was done on video content in the mobile environment because let’s face it; that’s where a lot of us go for information and entertainment.

The study also sends companies a pretty clear signal on how to be a bit more savvy with video/mobile advertising. Most importantly, don’t assume you can check “mobile advertising” off your to-do list by simply taking your TV spot and running it on mobile platforms. Consumers, at least those who took part in this survey, say they don’t want leftovers. No re-hash please.

So the pressure seems to be on advertising houses that aren’t already thinking this way. It’s time to start giving the mobile audience custom, fresh targeted spots — which by the way, don’t have to fit the traditional :30 mold.

It all makes me think Kevin isn’t just talented. He’s also ahead of the curve in delivering what the mobile audience demands.